(UPDATE: Barista responds) Anti-trans politician loudly offers to whip out his penis to ‘prove he’s a man’ in crowded restaurant

LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — Confronting a mortified woman in a crowded Fayetteville, Arkansas restaurant, Alderman John La Tour loudly accused her of being gender ambiguous and told the woman he’d pull out his penis to prove that he is a man.

The woman, who is in fact, a cis woman, happened to be a barista at the restaurant. After being kicked out of the restaurant by the manager, La Tour went to social media to disparage the restaurant owner and urged people not to patronize any of his restaurants. The posting has since been deleted.

Following media coverage, La Tour said he was just asking the woman to dance and his words were misconstrued. La Tour, a Tea Party conservative who has taken political donations from Christian reality show stars Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, has a history of opposing transgender rights.

La Tour told The Arkansas Times that the whole thing was just a joke and that he may be a victim of liberals who disagree with him. He also says he has apologized to the woman.

La Tour: “They know I’m conservative; they’re terribly disappointed I’m on the City Council. All that this is about is to discredit John La Tour and make him look like a buffoon.”

However, both The Arkansas Times and The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette noted that La Tour has history of disparaging remarks against trans people, including a recent incident during city council meeting which drew rebukes from other city officials. He had asked about the gender identity of a contractor and said “It’s hard to tell these days.”

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It was a posting of this incident on social media attracted the media’s attention. Gavin Smith on Facebook:

“Yesterday Fayetteville alderman John la tour ward 4 assaulted a dear friend in public demanding they choose a gender in a packed restaurant. He demanded she pick a gender declaiming loudly that he couldn’t tell if she was a man or a woman. She is not transgendered and does not in any way present any ambiguity about gender in any way. She’s a woman. He then explained that he was a man and could prove it by dropping his pants and showing his penis. That is bullying behavior and unacceptable on so many levels. Please call any news outlets you know and alert them to his “protests.” I doubt offering to expose yourself would be considered protected speech even by the right wing activist Dugger family who funded his campaign. He should be kicked out of office.”

Hi. You may remember me from Friday. I’m the “waitress” you had the unfortunate encounter with. I am not actually a “waitress”. I am a barista, and more importantly, a human being. I acknowledge that you are also a human being and not the complete monster you are currently being portrayed as on social media. I am also not the victim I see described in these posts.

On the morning of our incident, I didn’t know who you were and just thought you were a jerk being a jerk to someone in the service industry. It happens everyday. When you apologized, you said it wasn’t your intention to offend me, but what was your intention? It seems now that whether you realized it or not, your intention was to bully someone who obviously didn’t share your political notions. Whether that’s true or not, you should know that your insensitivity to the plight of others can be very hurtful. Your behavior was unacceptable regardless.

You said to me that it’s not hard to declare gender, that there are only two choices, male or female. I, like you, am not well versed in gender politics. We just can’t possibly understand what it means to be transgender. But in my lack of understanding, there’s a well of compassion. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to just exist in a world of those who don’t understand and hate you merely for existing. In your lack of understanding, there is fear. I get that. That’s very human of you. But how does that fear serve you? How does it serve your children?

It certainly didn’t do much for you this weekend. It was no fun for me either. Our little encounter has blown up in a way neither us of would have expected. I don’t revel in this kind of attention and chose to lay low, but that felt more victimizing, and irresponsible. The things you said to me on Friday were wildly inappropriate and even though I personally didn’t feel assaulted or sexually harassed, I have to speak up for those your bullying was intended for.

I hope this weekend has shown you that you are governing a community that doesn’t share your oppressive belief system and doesn’t tolerate this kind of treatment of it’s citizens, regardless of the gender they identify with. We no longer see you fit for duty. I hope you choose to resign your post, but if not, maybe you can choose to move forward, regardless of your beliefs, with an attitude of respect, compassion, and humanness towards your constituents. We’re all in this together.

And for the record, I declare myself woman. And I love to dance. If you can put aside the fear and hate, I’d love to take you up on that dance, regardless of how you identify.

Love & Guts, Greta”

t/h Jill Corcoran

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I believe John La Tour is a self-appointed buffoon. He didn’t need any help from liberals or the media.

15 replies

It dont matter, hell i would walk topless in public just so people would complain and when they ask me why im walking topless in public i would tell them because im sick and tired of people calling me a he or him or saying im a male. Then i would tell them to respect my leage born gender for how im listed at birth and i would have to walk topless

almost everything to most people. i have one, but i’m intersexed and it’s about the only thing about me that’s completely male, but all the years of testosterone have ruined my naturally girly EXTERNAL features. i’m female inside and it shows easily in the way i carry myself, yet i have difficulties getting some people to see past my looks into my heart.

I too am intersex, with a small penis, a fetal ovary and a testis. If feel female but live male. Like you I wish I could live my days as a women. But my body is too male and I cannot take estrogen because my fetal ovary became malignant and my cancer is estrogen driven. Sort of stuck in the middle are we not.
Having said this I carved a place to live and be happy. I refuse to let bigots determine my life.
A old employee came up to me after all my cancer surgeries and asked if I still had my manhood. He was retired but worked as a greeter at Walmart. I was so sick I could hardly walk but managed to tell the prick that even if I lost all my organs I would be more of a man and human being than him. Then I turned my back and walked away. the first thing I thought of when I read the story of the alderman showing his junk was this old creepy guy. These guys are all around jerks who tend to piss everyone off. Not just people in the transgender community. Just turn your back and walkway.
Of course feel free to take every opportunity to get these people removed from office. The goal is to be civilized in our approach to getting rid of him. He is one of those people who will hang them selves in the public eye.

Hear hear! Well said. I can’t imagine the hellish experiences of intersex people, but roadblocks (and blockheads) in my path as a trans woman bring their plight to mind at times- I straight out ask certain “gate keepers” or minor officials what the options are for intersex people, and all I ever get is a steely silence.

What an insecure #@%$&*’. I hope cis women will take notice of such events and realize it is the misogamist creating the trouble and not gender nonconforming people. The spill over of this sort of hatred is not acceptable, nor is it proper for the intended target.
Such confusion and anger on his part is a clear demonstration that he certainly treats males and females differently in all cases and cannot abide to any form of equal treatment or respect for anyone.
Makes my skin crawl.

It was certain to happen. These Wingnuts are so caught up with paranoia about “trans-threat” they see gender variant people where there are none. This is a particularly nasty reaction by a very mentally disturbed politician. Threatening to whip out his penis? Not only should he be removed from office, he should be remanded to psychiatric care.

So if the ‘bathroom bills’ are put into place, attorneys will have a field day with these kind of confrontations where cis-people are wrongly accused, and embarrassed like this in public.

A friend of mine, a cis woman, was yelled at in a ladies room recently for “being in the wrong restroom”. How anyone could look at her and think “OMG MAN IN THE LADIES ROOM!!” is beyond me. It’s getting ridiculous.

True manhood is in the heart and in the head. He is standing on a merit as he has nothing else to show for his “title” some doctor gave him at birth. He can either be real or swing his “power rod” around making him a baboon in the eyes of those that truly matter

this is a situation where a person could foster the cause of Christianity by not professing to be one.
This is clearly a case of retro third grade syndrome. You show you junk and I’ll show my junk. Or it could have much deeper phycological meaning into areas that are so dark I care not to venture. Recall him from office and give him medication.